Issey Miyake

Every season has its storm in a teacup, its clutch of personalities who absorb the fashion community in thought, word, and deed. But beyond that, there are the tribes who tirelessly toil—often thanklessly, in terms of media coverage—to create the collections that give substance to the fashion calendar. That train of thought rode down the tracks in one's mind today during a particularly impressive showing from Issey Miyake. Yoshiyuki Miyamae—the designer who is now attached enough to the line that it is he who takes the bow at show's end—is visibly youthful (trusting, that is, to the evidence of one's own eyes), and it was youth, beauty, and a gloriously summery freshness that today's collection communicated.

First, there was color in delicious combinations, in jersey dresses with a simple, drapey ease. Although there is, of course, no such thing as simple in the world of Miyake, so whatever fabric effect you were looking at was inevitably head-spinningly obtuse. Here, something called "double-sided transfer printing" meant that fabric was colored front and back, each side visible through the other. "Yarn melting"? Well, that sounds interesting, and judging by what was on the catwalk, it looks good too, if it was responsible for the dresses with the boing-boing bounce. "Steam stretch"? Probably the same, if it meant the black and white knits pulled out into pixie corners and set with heat.

One characteristic of the Miyake collection has always been an elegance of line. It was at its best here because it was called upon to corral all the colors and patterns into one coherent whole. If the world looked this way, it would truly be a better place.